Hero: Death Machine
by True Red25
Summary: A fun combat scene I wrote between Hal and a metallic clone of himself. In this world, Hal never returned to the world with May and the rest. Instead, he remained as a Super Saiyan in our reality and how would the world handle such a being... or two?


"This cannot be good…" Hal said as he stood just atop the nose of Camelback Mountain facing downtown Phoenix. His left knee was hoisted atop a boulder resting on the mountain and his arms hung at his sides. His eyes were wide like saucers as he stared into the sky. The reports were correct. Something he'd been very familiar with was hung over the entire city, miles wide in diameter. An ebony black hole hung over the entire city with green flames licking out around the perimeter. "It's a good thing they've evacuated…" Hal said to himself. He pressed two fingers into his left ear, activating his communications link. His Nav-Com unfolds and its microphone pokes out a few inches forward from the device. Its red button blinks on and Hal began to speak.

"I'm in Phoenix now. This thing is exactly what I thought it was when I saw the images on the TV. It's the portal to the other world." Hal said as he watched.

"Are you sure about that?" Captain Barnum's voice said into his ear.

"General, there is no mistaking it. This is the exact portal that took me there a few years ago." Hal's fists clenched as he peered into the void. "But this one… it's huge!" He exclaimed. "The one that took me was nowhere near the size of this thing. Whatever is trying to come through must be enormous…" Hal lifted off of the rocks on Camelback Mountain and hovered up and over towards the center. "But this one is stabilized for some reason. The portals usually are erased within seconds… and I have no idea why this one hasn't." He looked down at the ground and saw far along the edges of the city, a massive perimeter of Air Force and Army stations were set up. Dozens of jets flew circles around the portal, maintaining their distance. Countless tanks aimed their barrels towards the abyss. Soldiers scurried about as the entire armed forces remained ready to attack.

"And we are absolutely positive nothing has gone through yet?" Hal asked.

"Yes. We've been watching this thing since we saw it." General Barnum informed him.

"General, I'm going to ascend to the portal and see if there is anything on the other side."

"Roger that, permission granted." Barnum replied.

Hal shook his head and stifled a laugh. "With all due respect, General, this situation is beyond you." He calmly stated. "Keep your men on standby. If this is as bad as I get the feeling it is, I'm the only one on this planet that can do something about it."

"Watch yourself, kid." Barnum warned through Hal's Nav-Com.

"I can… sense somebody's energy through it…" Hal said as he ascended towards the portal. After a slow flight up, his clothes began to flap in the light wind bursts sent out from the portal. His hair flapped as squinted up into the blackness. He looks at his left hand and slowly began to raise it towards the portal. "But who's is it… it's been so-" He began to say.

His eyes quickly jolt over as he caught a blur of color to the right. The object darted to the ground and smashed into the desert floor, blasting dust up towards the sky in a vertical plume. "Hold your fire!" He yelled. "That… energy!" He said softly.

"What?" Barnum asked. "Who's energy?" The voice boomed in Hal's Nav-Com. "What are you talking about?" He demanded.

Hal had rushed over towards the impact zone of the crashed being. The person was shirtless and had the same colored pair of pants and blue sash around his waist. The being's boots were the same as Hal's as well. The Saiyan's heart raced as he landed next to the body and flipped it over onto its back. In a gasp for fresh air and a shock to the system, a hand reached out and grabbed Hal's arm in desperation and terror. "HAL!" Kaido exclaimed with fear in his voice.

"Oh God, Kaido!" Hal's eyes widened as he looks at his former pupil's wrecked body. Kaido's left leg was reversed as his knee cap now aimed towards the ground while lying on his back. His pants were tattered and soaked with blood. Streams of red pulsed down Kaido's chest and arms. Cuts, scrapes, burns, and gashes were all over the young man's body. A bald streak darted across the left side of his head and had singed skin on the scalp. Kaido's right arm hung dead at his side on the ground, bruised and broken. Its fingers were broken and jagged as if rammed back from an impact. His eyes, nose, and mouth collectively leaked blood like a sink that refused to shut off.

"HAL!" The General yelled.

"Give me a damn minute!" Hal shouted. "Kaido! God, what happened! We need to get you fixed up. Come on, I'll fly you to the-"

"NO!" Kaido exclaimed as he clenched down hard on Hal's arm. "It's… It's too late Hal. I'm not… ungh!" He winces as his whole body stuttered in pain. "Hal! You've got to… to listen! There's a… a thing up there!"

"The portal has begun shrinking!" Hal heard Barnum say into his earpiece.

"What…?" Hal looks over his shoulder and saw a completely blue being that hovered just underneath the now shrinking portal. His eyes focus on the character and he could see that no part of his body was covered in any clothing. The being appeared almost as if he had metal for skin. "Is that?"

"It's… a clone of you!" Kaido said. Hal's attention immediately darted back to his friend. "Hal, they… they put in all of your data! All of… hach!" Kaido turned to the side and vomited out a mouthful of blood that still dripped down the side of his face like ooze.

"Hey! Come on, buddy! What is this thing?!" Hal plead with his friend.

"They-" He coughs again to clear his throat. His body trembled as he spoke. "They made a new you! It's a machine! They made it to fight just as you do and grew it in a lab."

"A machine? I'll stop it, Kaido!"

"We aren't taking any chances, Super Saiyan!" The General said into his microphone. All at once, a barrage of shells and booms were launched at the floating blue man beneath the portal. The flames around the portal began to spiral inwards as the portal quickly collapsed in on itself.

"Don't!" Hal shouted as he looked up and saw smoke and fire in the sky that consumed the blue being.

"No! Please!" Kaido said as he pulled Hal back. He begged as tears began to stream down from his eyes instead of blood. "Hal, this thing… it looks just like you! It was supposed to be YOU! And something went wrong. We activated it too soon or… or something! It was meant to protect us… but… instead it brought nothing but death wherever it w-went." He sniffed his nose and spat out a blood clot from his mouth to the ground.

In a roar that shuddered the earth, the being threw its arms out and a green shield of energy surrounded it.

"What in the name of-" Hal heard Barnum say through the Nav-Com.

With a sweep of its right arm, the blue creature fired out an arcing wave of blue energy towards the perimeter set around the city miles apart. A blaze of flame erupts on impact, wrecking anything it touched in the military's defense line.

"Oh NO!" Hal jumped up but was pulled back by Kaido. "He'll kill you too! Everyone's dead Hal! EVERYONE!"

Hal froze solid at the words. The explosions overhead did little to distract him now. In a single thought, the great fighter had frozen solid. Everyone? "Drew? Brian?! Everyone?!" He stopped breathing in that instant and he looked down at Kaido. "Even May?"

"Everyone…" Kaido weakly replied.

"They're…!" Hal stuttered...

"It can even… turn… Super Saiyan." Kaido said as his head lost the ability to hold itself up.

"Kaido!"

"Hal… p…please…" Kaido said with his last breath. His body dropped and hung loose in Hal's arms. Hal's eyes took everything in.

"Kaido…"

"Who the hell are you talking to?!" Barnum yelled through to Hal. "Get your fucking head in it! We're dying out here!"

Hal stood up and looked at the ground. His fists clenched down hard as he thought back to his friends in Hoenn. He saw all of the happiest moments with his old friends play over in his mind once more and then shatter like glass.

He beamed his eyes up at the monster and in a blur of red and blue, rushed up towards the creation and swung a right fist at its jaw. A shockwave flies out from the impact, shattering windows on the buildings beneath them and shot out a sonic boom heard around for miles. The being flew and spun backwards. Hal looked over his head again and watched as the remainder of the portal closed up and vanished into a single point of light that too went dark and disappeared.

"You son of a BITCH!" Hal yelled as he struck a stance. The creature released shockwave behind itself and stabilized its body in the air as it glared over at Hal with its piercingly bright yellow eyes.

"Hal!" Barnum shouted. Hal snarled through grit teeth as spit flew out from his mouth. "HAL! What is that thing?!"

"Barnum…" Hal said through his shaken rage. "This just got personal. Hold you fire until I'm done."

"Now hold on a-!" He heard the General's voice begin as he reached over to his ear and tore out his Nav-Com and crushed it in his hand. "Now you listen to me…" Hal began. "I don't know who's idea it was to make you or how you got by the others, but you die here." Hal said coldly.

The machine rubbed its left cheek hit from Hal's punch. Hal looked at the spot where he had hit carefully after the machine lowered its hand. "Interesting…" He thought to himself. "That armor held up too well to that strike." The machine smirked at him and stared as it chuckled in a low hollow, metallic sounding voice. "And it looks just like me…" Hal said with an aggravated tone.

"Death Machine." It said and pointed at its body with its left thumb. Its snarky grin pulled a growl from Hal.

"I'll tear you apart you murderous face stealing bastard!" Hal shouted as a white aura burst forth around him. Wind whipped out from his body, blasting all around them. His clothes and hair flapped violently around his body.

Death Machine simply threw its head back and let out a cry of its own. The monster then lurched forward and shot Hal a dastardly flash from its yellow eyes. In an instant, Death Machine teleported out of sight. "Wh…. what?" Hal said as he looked all around himself. "Fast!"

A strike of lightning flashed down from the sky. It dropped through with a demonic ferocity and smashed directly into Hal. Those who could see the attack saw it almost in slow motion but lasted a mere second. Death Machine had clasped its hands together and bashed Hal atop the head. Hal's aura instantly cut off and he shot towards the ground. His body slammed into the pavement below and cratered out about five feet in every direction, falling beneath the rubble that fell onto him. All around, bated breath struck those watching. The Death Machine dropped out of the sky and landed at the bottom of Hal's small crater. It reached down and through the rubble beneath its feet and dug. It smiled once more and pulled out Hal's leg and eventually his entire body with a now lightly tattered uniform. Death Machine laughed at its prize. Hal's body hung limply upside down and faced the monster. The machine reached back with its other arm and clenched its fist. Hal jolted up and whipped his arms back and shoved them forward, igniting two orbs of energy in his hand and planted them on the killer's chest. Hal lets out a roar as he fired a large beam of energy from his hands that consumed the monster and forced it to let go of Hal's leg. The Saiyan flipped forward and landed on his feet turned around to face his foe.

"I didn't think it'd hit that hard." Hal said as he stumbled to his feet and saw the monster fall off of the skyward beam he'd fired and drop to the ground, gouging out a scar a quarter of a mile long through downtown Phoenix's buildings, parking structures, and more. Death Machine's feet dug into the ground to stop itself. Once it had, the blue destroyer began to dash back towards Hal. "Here he comes." Hal said as he too started running towards his target. He finally leapt into the air and ignited his white aura as he hurled himself at Death Machine. They both pulled their right arms back and slammed them in to one another and released a shockwave that shattered all windows in their area and cracked the ground beneath them. Hal's arm buckled slightly under the impact and a drop of sweat dripped down the side of his head. Death Machine stepped forward and dropped its left elbow towards Hal's head. Hal stepped back and tossed a mirrored strike. Their elbows slammed and boomed on impact. Hal immediately fired right knee, only to be mirrored by Death Machine and shot off another boom when their joints clashed. Hal squints lightly and saw Death Machine's eyes widen as a grin crept across its face. The two fighters suddenly burst into a flurry of strikes, whipping by their bodies at a dizzying pace. Hal stepped back and adjusted his balance as he continued to defend himself from Death Machine's attack.

Somehow, a strike got by Hal's defenses and a heavy punch cracked Hal across the jaw so hard his body tore open the top of the ground as his body rocketed across the floor only a few inches in the air. Death Machine flew forward and stomped Hal's chest into the ground, grinding Hal deep into the ground. A column of dirt and dust blasted up from the fissure and slowly dissipated as the wind caught it and blew the haze away.

The world felt as if it were on hold. The incident unfolding before our very eyes had not been seen for years. That fight brought back a lot of fear that bolted through all of our bodies and reminded us what was amongst us. It was this fight that changed things forever and drove us down the path to our destruction. People the world over held their breath in a unified silence.

Death Machine rose out of the fissure and placed its hands on its hips and tilted its head. It let out a scoff and threw its arms forward and released a barrage of yellow energy blasts that destroyed the ground beneath it. It slowly rose to the sky and kept firing away as it wrecked buildings with its rapid fire.

"Dear God…" Barnum said as he and his staff watched the creature unload a wall of energy attacks. The command center which housed the General and his staff stared at a massive screen that displayed the fight before them all.

"General he can't be-" A staff member asked the decorated officer.

"Dead? " Barnum fell back into his chair pointed at the video screens surveying the area. "I hope not…"

Outside, Death Machine had finally stopped shooting and hovered in the air about a hundred feet. Death Machine grinned as its light brown hair flapped in the wind. It released a shockwave beneath itself and cleared the smoke and dirt. Its eyes darted all over in a search for any movement. A small pile of boulders fell out underneath themselves and Death Machine's eyes jolt towards the movement. Its face scrunched a bit in frustration. A white aura similar to Hal's bursts on around Death Machine and it teleported towards the ground. It stopped inches above the floor and then hurled itself into the mess of debris.

The ground rumbled beneath and some shook harder than others but all could feel the ground quake beneath their feet. Helicopters around the perimeter looked over towards the center of the city and saw the ground begin to glow yellow. It then bellied up, lifting the Earth towards the sky in a spherical shape that grew brighter and brighter the taller it went. Finally, dust and rock erupted all around the area that was glowing and sank through the floor and collapsed a half mile radius of the city a hundred feet down. Houses, buildings, stores, nothing was spared as the ground gave way beneath the structures. A loud boom, the loudest one heard, blasted out and was followed by a blue figure that was hurled out of the column of smoke that reached into the sky.

A familiar yell is heard from the smoke and in a shockwave blast shot forth from the epicenter and Hal flew out from the billowing smoke. Hal cleared the smoke with a gust of wind shot forth from his body and revealed himself to be surrounded by his red Kaioken Attack aura. "Incredible…" Hal said as he breathed hard. The left shoulder of Hal's red shirt was torn away. Scrapes and scuffs covered Hal's body and face. "Damn…! This thing would have to be strong to take down everybody." He clenched his fists and straightened his body as he hovered a few hundred feet up in the air. "And he killed them all… even May." His face snarled as he bellowed out. Harder gusts of wind flew forth from his body and his cry was heard everywhere. In a flash of white light from his body, Hal transformed into his Super Saiyan form and glared at his opponent. His eyes sharpened and had changed to green irises. His hair spiked up and changed to yellow and his golden aura flew up around his body in a flame.

Death Machine laughed its hollow laugh and roared back at Hal. In a similar flash of white light, Death Machine transformed into a Super Saiyan as well, with the same facial features changing the way Hal's had. Death Machine's eyes narrowed and its hair turned to yellow. The fiery yellow aura surrounded its body and its cold yellow eyes changed to green. Hal felt like he was looking into a twisted mirror. Hal leaned forward in the air just a bit and suddenly teleported out of sight. Death Machine followed suit and all was quiet for a few seconds.

Blurs whipped across the city as the two flew around each other, vying for a better position. Booms like thunder erupt in the sky and broke apart the column of smoke from the massive sinkhole in the desert floor. Clouds in the sky flew apart as Hal and Death Machine collided strikes and flew away from one another in the air. They appeared over the crater in the ground that sank beneath the city. Their arms were locked together with each pushing and pulling the others'. Hal's aura burst on and Death Machine copied its opponent. Blasts of wind flew from their bodies and blew loose debris outwards.

"Huck!" Hal gurgled as he felt Death Machine's knee slam into his gut. Stunned from strike for a second, Hal grunted and then roared back, letting go of Death Machine's hand and driving a right cross into Death Machine's face and sent it hurtling towards the ground. Death Machine gouged into the earth, through countless residential homes and businesses and finally collided into the head of Camelback Mountain. "I know that one hurt." Hal said to himself as he panted and looked at the rubble. "This is bad. This isn't the kind of opponent I can lure away." He said as he looked back at the perimeter of military units surrounding the far outskirts of the city. "And I certainly wouldn't mind the… 'backup'…" His gaze darted back to Death Machine's location. Camelback Mountain's head retained its shape despite the impact but began to rustle on the desert floor. Boulders tumbled off as it continued to shake and slowly, it began to rise.

"…The hell." Hal's eyes widened as he watched the gigantic mountain head lift into the air. As it rose, Hal saw Death Machine with both of its hands underneath the mountain. Death Machine's yellow aura flapped out around its body as the monster kept rising to the sky. Hal watched the mountain climb higher and higher with Death Machine lifting it skyward. It ascended several hundred feet into the sky and finally stopped.

Death Machine smirked as its eyes beamed at Hal.

"Shit!" Hal said as he pulled his arms to his side and cupped his hands together. An orb of blue energy appears as Hal begins to charge his attack. "Kamehame-!" He yelled out.

Incredibly, Death Machine whipped its arms forward and hurled the mountain at Hal.

"Huh?!" Hal stuttered as the mountain rocketed towards him. "So fast!" He thought to himself in a shocked instant. The mountain slammed into Hal's body, splatting him like a bug on a windshield. Camelback Mountain's former head tumbled across the city, pancaking everything it ran over and slammed into South Mountain, pushing back the earth at its new resting place.

Death Machine let out a battle cry that made the surrounding soldiers spines shiver as its aura erupted around it.

"AHHHHHH!" Hal's voice ruptured through the valley as the mountain thrown at him splits perfectly in half and began to separate. Between the mountain halves, Hal's aura flared around him at the base of the rocks. His hands were against the mountain faces and pushed them apart to free himself. When he finally had enough room, he leapt out of the rocks and landed on the ground with a glare aimed up at Death Machine who laughed at the young Super Saiyan's struggle.

A shockwave boomed beneath him and blasted all of the dirt unsettled in the air outwards. He flew into the air towards Death Machine, only to watch Death Machine teleport out of sight and then appear next to him and spike him in the face with a whirling right kick. Hal was knocked back but teleported once again out of sight and appeared in front of Death Machine's face. He stabbed his left knee into Death Machine's face and felt something crack upon impact on his target's face. He hook punched his enemy with his right arm, making Death Machine fly north across the city. Hal caught up to his prey, only to be whipped in the face by Death Machine flipping over and thrusting a kick into his chest. Death Machine reached out and grabbed Hal's clothing and flipped over once more after his grip was secured and dropped the pair towards the ground. Hal looked at his opponent's face and saw a crack creep across the left side of Death Machine's face and broke at the top of its mouth.

"No!" Hal cried as he stabbed his right elbow into the left side of Death Machine's face. He'd hit the machine hard enough to break out of the fall. The pair flipped away and landed on the streets of Tempe and thrust themselves back at one another as they blasted strikes like lightning at each other.

"Good God…" Barnum said as he stood up and stared at the battle that unfolded before his eyes. "The gloves are off now. Contact the President. We may need his authorization for…"

"Is that necessary?" A member of his staff piped out.

"Last time when Hal transformed, he fought that dragon thing, Mefist. He was in control most of the fight, but this…" Barnum stopped as he looked back at his screen. "Hal's having trouble with this fight." He looked back at his staff and released nervous sigh. "Pull everyone. We need to prepare for the worst. Get our soldiers out of there, and I mean right now. Load as many as we can into vehicles. Save as many as we can." Barnum looked over his shoulder at the screen. "Let's hope you haven't grown soft in these times of peace…"

The two power house fighters bounced off of each other three times and then dove away and arced a path parting ways towards the ground as they left behind trails of golden energy in the air like a jet stream behind a plane. Hal rolled over onto his back and charged a quick yellow orb of energy and shot a single beam of yellow energy from his palm that rocketed towards Death Machine. The blue fighter looked back and saw the beam as it flew towards him. His face startled and then teleported down towards the ground. The second Death Machine reappeared, Hal appeared beside it and drove a heavy punch into Death Machine's chest, blasting out a shockwave as he slammed Death Machine into a massive office building that split the structure vertically with a fissure.

Suddenly a blurred blue fist cracked Hal across the jaw from the smoke. Another fist flew out that lifted into his ribs. Death Machine leapt out and unleashed a barrage of strikes into Hal's body as it pushed the young man back, eventually to be lifted and juggled in the air from its strikes. Death Machine shoved its open palms into Hal's chest where it erupted a yellow blast of energy. Hal bolted forward and grabbed the blast before it hit, saving himself a mere inch between his chest and death. The ball of energy pushed him back as Hal struggled to get a footing. He finally pulled his fingers beneath the sphere let it roll up towards the sky.

"Damn… this guy is good." Hal thought to himself as Death Machine appeared a few yards away with a grin on his face. "He fights like I would if I had no remorse…"

Death Machine laughed its metallic empty voice. Its smirk grew and then struck a horse stance. Its arms crossed at the wrists and its fingers bent at the first knuckle while the second jetted out at a ninety degree angle. Hal's eyes squinted as he looked curiously at the technique.

Death Machine's hands formed fists as it locked its arms at the elbows at ninety degrees. Hal's eyes widened. "Uh-oh…" He took a defensive stance and stepped back. Death Machine's body blurred before him and snapped apart. "This is… Van's technique." Hal said as he stared at two Death Machine's that glared him down. The Death Machines struck their stance again, blurred, and split into two more copies. The maniacal machines snickered at their opponent as they surrounded Hal. Hal hunkered down and prepared for their assault. "Let's go!" He growled.

At once, the four killers lunged at him. The five fighters erupted into an exchange of blows only they could see. They bounced around the city off of one another and buildings, wrecking the already lost real estate. Hal teleported and reappeared as he landed on the side of a skyscraper that leaned heavily towards the ground. A blue hand reached up through the debris and yanked him down through the structure and slammed him into the ground. The other three copies rushed down towards Hal's body and landed over him. They unleashed a barrage of blows into his body as it lie on the ground. The ground cratered beneath him as they hit him all over his body harder and harder. The group of four leapt back and smirked at Hal's body as he remained on his back and looked towards the sky. He felt dizzy and whipped from his beating. His left eye was half open and his entire shirt had been torn away from the ferocity of the blows he had received. He bled from a wound on his forehead that made blood drip down the bridge of his nose. A streak of blood trickled down from the corner of his right eye. Scrapes and bruises littered his torso.

Hal winced in pain but staggered to his feet again. "Incredible… heh." He dropped his head, sighed and looked back up at the Death Machines. "To think this thing would be… this strong." He said through labored breath. He felt blood drop down the side of his face. "If I only had time… I could..!" Hal said to himself as he looked up and saw all of the Death Machines in a stance familiar to him. "No…!" Each Death Machine had its hands cupped together at its side as it charged a blue sphere of energy in the space between its palms. Beams of blue light shot out between the spaces of its fingers. "My… Kamehameha!" Hal cried. He threw his arms up and immediately surrounded his body in a green sphere of energy. The Death Machines thrusted their hands forward and blast out their attacks. The Kamehameha waves rocketed towards Hal and slammed into his shield and erupted in a horrific explosion that flattened the impact area for a half mile.

"We're… powerless against him!" The General said with his hand to his mouth. The entire command center was silent as they watched the smoke get blasted away by the Death Machines. The shockwave boomed past the command center and sent a thick wall of dust and sand whipping across the land. "Do we have a visual?"

"All of our cameras were just knocked out. Linking up via satellite now…" Miles above the ground, a satellite honed in on Phoenix, zooming further and further in towards ground zero.

"There!" The General yelled as he saw a few pixels of blue show up on their screen. Before them, Hal's body lay on the ground on his stomach. "Oh no…!" The General whispered to himself.

On the battlefield, Death Machine stared down at its latest victim. Hal's body had reverted back to normal from Super Saiyan. All of the Death Machines' eyes widened. They lined up next to one another and in a similar blur, they then snapped back together into one entity. Death Machine walked over towards Hal's body and stared at it for a few moments. It then knelt down beside its victim and placed a hand on the back of Hal's head. In a jolt, Death Machine released a small shockwave from its palm. The ground beneath Hal's face cracked apart and the Saiyan continued to remain on the ground.

The command center felt as cold as ice as a shiver dropped down each person's spine.

Death Machine stared at Hal's body for a few more moments and finally, smiled and howled in laughter at its victory. It turned around and looked over its shoulder at the destruction around it. The city was unsalvageable. Death Machine looked across at the either courageous or foolish soldiers that still remained far out towards the mountains and farms in the distance. It jumped into the air a few feet when it spotted the command center far off and its aura ignited back on around tis body. It laughed again and charged itself with energy and caused the ground to rumble beneath its feet.

"No." Hal said as he reached out and grabbed Death Machine by the ankle, whipped it around, and hurled it into a large pile of debris. He turned to look at his foe and revealed blood dripping down his face in streaks like war paint. He stood strong and determined, more so than ever before up until then. Waves of white energy pulsed out around his body. "Death Machine, this ends now." He called coldy. Death Machine leaped out of the debris pile and landed with a metallic thunk on the desert floor. The killer snarled at him, clearly frustrated Hal was still alive.

Hal squinted his eyes as white waves of energy pulsed out around him and in a flash of white light, Hal transformed into a Super Saiyan again. Death Machine smirked and struck a defensive stance again. "AAHHHHHRGH!" Hal roared as his aura blasted out around him. The muscles in his body immediately bulged out with a significantly increased mass. The spikes in Hal's hair became more jagged than previously and became a whitish yellow. His aura switched from resembling that of a soft flame to a torrent of energy that shot up around his body at a sharper angle than before. "You may have our techniques and my power, but you don't have the same work ethic I do." Death Machine's eyes widened in fear as it stepped back. "If you had, you would have discovered Ascended Super Saiyan, like me." He said with narrowed eyes and a clenched jaw. "But you aren't me. You're a mistake." A gust of wind blew out from Hal's body that caused Death Machine to tremble from the force as it dug its feet into the ground.

Hal stood with his guard down as he dared Death Machine to attack him. Growling, Death Machine lunged at Hal and punched Hal across the face and sent the Ascended Super Saiyan into the ground. Death Machine fired out a barrage of yellow energy blasts from his hand that streaked toward the cloud of smoke kicked up from Hal's impact. After nearly half a minute, Death Machine finally stopped its assault and clenched its fists as it stood and waited for any signs of life.

Hal burst out of the plume of smoke and dust while he flipped about fifty feet gracefully through the air. He landed on the ground and shot himself towards Death Machine. Death Machine stepped back in fear and reacted too slowly. Hal cracked Death Machine across the face even harder and shattered Death Machine's left cheek from the blow. The slight crack on Death Machine's face grew even wider and a small jagged hole opened up on the monster's face. Death Machine's body rocketed back horizontally. Hal flew after it and punched the other side of death Machine's face and lifted it into the air a few more inches. Hal fired out a few more strikes until Death Machine finally countered and crossed Hal across the left cheek. The young man's face flew back for merely an instant and then Hal roared back with a yell and fired another left cross at Death Machine's broken face. The blow smashed into Death machine and shot him across the destroyed city even faster with its body parallel to the ground. Hal chased after his foe again and curled his body into a ball as he flipped once more above Death Machine's face. Hal jolted his body straight and stomped Death Machine in the face with both feet as he ground the blue killer into the floor and carved a gouge in the ground for over a hundred feet. Hal grabbed Death Machine's legs that shot perpendicular to the ground behind him and spun around once more. With every rotation, he smashed Death machine's face into the ground again and again until he finally hurled its body into the air. Upon release, a sonic boom immediately burst forth from Death Machine's rocketed body. Hal looked up and chased again, only to teleport half way through his flight. He reappeared over Death Machine's body and filled his left palm with red fiery energy that then consumed his entire forearm. He pulled his arm back and threw it forward, blasting Death Machine with a blow from his Kaioken Flame attack. Death Machine shot towards the ground at a forty-five degree angle and Hal chased once more. He grabbed his left arm at the wrist and charged the Kaioken Flame once more. He teleported out of sight and appeared on the ground at the point where Death machine would land. "HrraaaAAAAHHHHH!" Hal bellowed as he punched. His voice cracked as his body's aura erupted into his red Kaioken aura. The fist struck Death Machine in the lower torso and exploded in a massive red flare, hundreds of feet wide and long, angled towards the sky. Swirls of red and yellow energy flared out in all directions as Death Machine's body broke apart from the attack in a matter of seconds. The swirls and flares of energy closed in on themselves and solidified into a solid gigantic beam of energy and that shot towards the sky. Within a few moments, the beam thinned out and then nothing remained.

Hal stood with his fist still aimed out and a stern look remained on his face. He dropped his transformation and returned to normal and then fell to his knees and then dropped to the ground. He rolled over onto his back and looked towards the sky as he caught his breath. He sat up and gazed at the carnage of a wrecked city with craters all around, a mountain out of place, and a devastated land. He dropped his head and shook it. The worst was yet to come.


End file.
